Food Adventure #1: LA

Last week, I took my first trip to the Left Coast for a work conference in Los Angeles. Conferencing usually presents sparse opportunities for experiencing the local food scene, but this trip far exceeded my expectations. I stayed at the historic Biltmore hotel in downtown LA which is an absolutely spectacular, over-the-top building (seriously, every surface of this place is carved, gilded and frescoed to within an inch of its life) where the Academy Awards were once held. There are photos all down the hallway to the ladies' room of celebrities in the times that celebrities were classy: Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Bette Davis... *swoon*


Well, I arrived in this grand location mid-afternoon (Pacific time) on Sunday having left Atlanta on a 10:30am flight and having eaten nothing but "discount airline pretzels" and Biscoff (which I hate) since about 8am (Eastern time). I was ravenous, but was meeting up with a friend from college later in the afternoon, so I needed something light. Not ravenous enough to go to Quizno's, the first place I walked past, or to Domino's, Quizno's next-door neighbor. I approached a tiny shop labelled a "superconvenience" and wrote it off as a candidate for my first meal ever on Pacific time, but as I walked by I spotted a large refrigerated island that appeared to have sushi and prepared sandwiches and I thought, "Famima!!, we have a winner!"


Famima!!, she is amazing. Part convenience store (one aisle of minitoothpaste and one-sleeve packs of Oreos), but the rest... Famima!! is to organic-eating young urban professionals what Sheetz is to rednecks and frat boys. Seriously. They have the largest array of unsweetened, calorie-free beverages I've ever seen. Having recently sworn off of aspartame after reading this book, this was key to my late lunching happiness. They've got Diet Coke too, mind you, but I have -- literally -- dozens of choices that won't put holes in my brain. I selected a delectable-looking seaweed salad, a brown rice cucumber roll and a bottle of "green tea drink" with no English on the label and 160 percent of my daily allowance of vitamin C. Other options included lovely premade salads (southwestern, greek, chef, etc), minimally soggy-looking sandwiches and Indian dishes which the Famima!! clerk will heat up for you behind the counter. At the counter, there was also a case of "steamy buns" filled with concoctions of pork, veggies or chicken. I decided that I would have to come back to try one of these delights (this will have to wait until my next excursion out west).


I settled down at a bistro table on the sidewalk to tackle my lunch. (Finally!) My (admittedly fish-free) sushi was phenomenal. The rice was moist and sticky with a slightly sweet hint of mirin, the cucumber crunchy. The seaweed salad was delightful: spicy and crisp with none of the sliminess I associate with seaweed salad. The "green tea drink" was great too. Famima!!, I think I love you. You should move to Atlanta!


I returned to the hotel and finally managed to corral my old friend, and we met for a drink at the Gallery Bar, a contender for the nicest hotel bar in America, I think. I had a gimlet; he ordered a Negroni (which Dr. Google informs me is a fancy concoction of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth). The bartender was subtle, classy and mixed a damned good cocktail. A far cry from my usual digs, but I could get used to this! I learned later that this bar is the last place the Black Dahlia was seen alive... so, the good, the bad and the ugly of Hollywood are all connected to this hotel. Way to go, conference planners!

From the bar, College Friend and I drove around town. LA is really quite beautiful, especially in the dark, but it has a certain plastic, groomed quality about it that I associate with model train villages. LA's beauty is all lights and sparkle and kitsch, not the older, wilder beauty of the East Coast places I'm used to.

After a turn through the jazz section of Amoeba Records (the most amazing/overwhelming record store I've ever been in), we settled into an adorable seafood restaurant called the Hungry Cat near the corner of Sunset and Vine. The decor was hip, and Loretta Lynn's Walk-of-Fame star was just a few feet outside the door. (Disclosure: Harry Carey's was too, but that doesn't sound nearly as hip as Ms. Lynn in her Jack-White-produced renaissance.) We immediately ran down the cocktail menu -- LA seems like a cocktail kind of town -- and I ordered the cucumber martini, a traditionalish gin martini blended with cukes. College Friend ordered the Hot Tamale, confidently selecting the "On fire" option rather than the less manly "Hot" version. This drink was a mixture of chile-infused tequila and some other stuff. HOT HOT stuff. They weren't joking with the "On fire" moniker. We discovered that the cool cucumber martini was an excellent chaser, and eventually ordered a second round of cuke-tinis (yum!).

This cat was pretty hungry at this point, so everything on the menu sounded even more delicious than usual. We had College Friend's odd (and lifelong) refusal to eat fruit to accommodate, so that took a few choices off the table. After rolling our eyes at the folks around the restaurant eating burgers at a seafood joint, we settled on sharing both the scallops and the ling cod. Entree #1 arrives, roasted scallops with fregola sarda, Smithfield ham and harissa aioli. OMG. The scallops were succulent and tender, perfectly paired with the spicy, tomatoey sauce and the fregola sarda, which are little puffs of pasta that roughly resembled chick peas. We were practically licking the plate by the time entree #2 arrived, ling cod with merguez sausage, potatoes and kale. This dish was just as delightful as the first, and by the time I placed the last forkfull in my mouth and lapped up the last drip of cucumber martini, I felt the internal sigh of the culinarily sated. If it hadn't been after midnight in my brain, a cat nap would have been in order (ba-dum-bum).

I went on to put away lots of fish (including some amazing happy-hour-special sushi at the Monsoon Cafe in Santa Monica), surprisingly good hotel/conference food and some middling microbrews. All in all, LA is a place that I would like to visit again. Maybe next time without the talking about education data to distract me from the food. ;)